EDITORIAL

This Issue: Anarchy and …

This issue of Extropy focuses on anarchy. By ‘anarchy’ I do not mean chaos, but rather the absence of statist coercion. An anarchistic society actually promises to be more orderly than a statist one, because statism depends on the use of coercive force. Statist coercion disrupts society by distorting the prices that convey information in a free market, and by directly enslaving and killing innocent individuals. The easily visible order imposed by statist laws crushes the spontaneously evolved order embodied in market processes, customs, and voluntary associations. Statism thereby increases entropy and thus merits the enmity of all those who value freedom, peace, and extropy.

In ‘Arch-anarchy’ A argues for the overthrow of all laws — be they the laws of statists, moralists, nature, or logic — that get in the way of his will. Or is that her will? Its? A’s identity remains a mystery. I can assure you that I am not A. By the time you finish reading ‘Arch-anarchy’ you will probably know who is, however.

Max T. O’Connor’s engaging and sophisticated ‘Deep Anarchy’ ranges from abstract metaphysics to practical advice for extropians stranded in a statist world. He concludes that we already live in anarchy, because ‘the State’ does not really exist.

You will find a battle-cry for anarchy in ‘The Extropian Declaration,’ where Max and I announce the beginning of a revolution against ignorance, destruction, and death; a revolution we will fight with ideas and win in minds.

Max and I have also collected various anti-statism quotes, scattered throughout this issue under the heading, ‘Our Enemy, ‘The State.”

… More, More, More!!!

There is more to this issue than anarchy, however.

In ‘Forum’ Dr. John Hospers and I hash it out over aesthetics.

Drawing on personal interviews of Stephan W. Hawking and Arthur C. Clarke, Gregory Benford offers an inspiring image of intelligence overcoming physical barriers in ‘Leaping the Abyss.’

Fred Chamberlain reveals why he never wants to grow old in ‘I Am a Child.’

As part of a continuing series of articles that project the future of computing in user-friendly terms, Simon D. Levy walks us through a working neural network in ‘Perceptrons.’

In ‘On Competition and Species Loss’ Max argues on behalf of both.

Rob Michels reviews Ronald K. Siegel’s Intoxication, an expert examination of drug use among humans

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and animals. Siegel explains that the love of drugs is a basic human drive, akin to eating or sex. It will thus resist all efforts at its elimination, the ‘War on drugs’ notwithstanding.

Max and Simon provide bite-sized summaries of extropian technological advances in ‘Intelligence at Work.’

If all of this extropianism leaves you hungering for more, turn to ‘Extropian Resources,’ where Max and I list a number of organizations and publications that fight entropy in one way or another.

Future Issues

In Extropy #5.5, the spring half-issue, Max will publish ‘The Extropian Principles,’ a concise statement of the extropianism’s basic principles.

Having closed the door on statism in this issue, we will open the door to anarchistic societies in an upcoming issue. Max plans to write about spontaneous orders, while I will write about systems of privately-provided law.

In other areas, Simon will continue his series on the future of computation with an article on neurocomputation. Max plans to offer a review of ‘The Immortalist’ and a description of the contrast between religion and reliberium. We also hope to have articles on the Singularity by Mark Potts and on the Far Edge Committee by Keith Henson. And we will continue with updated versions of ‘Intelligence at Work’ and ‘Extropian Resources.’

Further down the road, Max projects an issue devoted to personal identity, including uploading and personality mergers. We welcome articles

on this topic, and on on any extropian topic in general, including: artificial intelligence; cognitive science and neuroscience advances and possibilities; intelligence increase technologies; life extension, cryonics; biostasis, and immortalism in general; nanotechnology; hypermedia; spontaneous orders; space colonization; libertarian economics and politics; reviews of science fiction; intelligent use of psychochemicals; extropian self-improvement psychology; mindfucking and weirdness; extropic moral and amoral theories; exciting developments in science and technology; memetics; and aesthetics.

Corporate Shakeup!

A rash of corporate restructuring has struck Extropy Unltd.,™©®etc. manufacturer of vaccine for future shock. I will hand over the editorship Extropy magazine (a wholly owned subsidiary) to Max T. O’Connor with the next issue. Though I step down with great regret, I leave proud of my record. Marketing surveys show local decreases of entropy in hundreds of brains the world over. (To allow further such gloating, I will hang around as assistant editor.)

Max has already established himself as an energetic and capable extrapolologist. He plans to continue Extropy’s success by publishing full issues twice yearly, in the summer and winter, with supplemental half-issues coming out each spring and fall. This clever strategy will allow him to cut production costs while still bringing you tons of fine reading.

Extropy welcomes Simon D. Levy, doctoral candidate in linguistics at the University of Connecticut, as our new

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